Steal the Light (Thieves) (5 page)

Halle clucked a bit and shook his head. “Dearling, you don’t know what that would mean.”

But I did. I’d talked to a few people and patched together what I could. In the vampire world, there are two types of women. There are blood dolls and there are companions. It’s the vampire equivalent of a one-night stand versus a long-term, happy marriage. A companion is a woman who serves as wife, and more importantly, dinner. The blood a vampire needs on a day-to-day basis is small. One person can feed a vampire and never suffer ill effects if said vampire isn’t a greedy bastard. Due to the passionate nature of the vampire, most select a companion and mate for the life of the human companion. The vampire sharing small portions of his blood elongates the companion’s life. It keeps the companion young, but in the end, the human body breaks down no matter what you feed it. Vampires without a companion, or who find themselves apart from their companions, use blood dolls. These are women who work at the clubs and make themselves available to vampires for a late-night snack. I like to think of them as convenient, Council-approved whores.

“I understand what it means to be a companion, Halle. And I understand that Daniel is being stubborn.”

Halle took a long breath, an odd weariness stealing over his features. “There is so much you don’t know. Vampires are secret creatures. Even I don’t understand everything about them. Ingrid and I have steered clear. To know vampire secrets is to court the Council’s wrath, but I know that a companion is something a vampire guards zealously. And I’ve heard rumors about true companions. I don’t like these rumors. Daniel is right to keep you off the Council’s radar.”

I didn’t know what he meant by true companion. True or false, I would have taken any title just to be close to Daniel again. But three years of waiting for him followed by two years of a Daniel I barely knew had worn me down. And I hadn’t come here to talk about Daniel.

“Is Ingrid around? I have a couple of questions about an object I’m hoping she’s heard of.”

Halle ran his fingers through his thick hair in an attempt to smooth it down. “She should be back any moment. She went walking. She will be pleased to see you.”

Halle was wearing a large T-shirt and sweatpants, and he attempted to smooth the wrinkles out of his clothes as well. Trolls were very aware of their mates and always attempted to look their best. It was hard, though. Trolls like Halle looked mostly human, but there was always one piece of hair that no matter what they did to it or how much product they tried on it, always stuck straight up. Then there was the tail…

There was a pop as the cork in the wine came out, and I found myself seated comfortably by the fire with a glass of wine and a bowl of soup which looked completely housepet free. After some pleasant conversation about the weather and television shows we both liked, I got down to why I had come.

“This sounds like bad business.” Halle sagely shook his head as I told him the story of my encounter with the demon. “I have not heard of this demon, Halfer, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know him. He would use many names and many guises when on this plane. Was there anything unusual about him? Anything that stood out?”

I thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I think he was really good at masking. You know how when a demon is around, people get uneasy? I never felt that with him. Daniel didn’t even pick up on the brimstone until he was gone.”

“Then he is either extremely old and powerful, or works for someone who is,” Halle explained. “Demons sometimes share powers with their lesser servants when they need to. The powerful can share strength with lesser demons and even earthbound witches.”

I took a long drink of the wine. It was just starting to take the edge off my panic. Not only did I get to deal with a demon, but apparently a really old, powerful demon, or a group of them led by an old, powerful demon. The day just got better and better.

Halle turned his large, dark eyes on me in a sympathetic fashion. “I’m sure it will turn out all right. You just have to be careful and follow the letter of the agreement. Just remember that when dealing with demons, the devil really is in the details.”

“Who is dealing with demons?” a feminine voice asked from the darkness.

Halle stood and smiled as his wife emerged from the shadows. I wasn’t sure what Ingrid really looked like. She was old and adept at glamour. Halle was younger than his wife and had no use for glamour. The female who emerged from the darkness appeared to be in her mid-twenties and could have been a poster child for a Swedish modeling agency. Her blonde hair was perfect and meshed with her icy blue eyes. She made an odd sight walking out of the trees in a couture gown and heels.

When I was young, I would make a game of finding the one flaw in the glamour. When using this magic, there is always one small flaw, and if you can find it, the glamour no longer works on you and you can see the person as they truly are. I never could find that fatal flaw, and as I got older, I stopped trying. I realized that this was Ingrid as she wanted to be seen and to try to pull down her glamour was a rudeness I didn’t wish to participate in.

“Oh, greetings to Zoey Wharton,” she said with a smile.

As I stood to greet her, she lightly touched my hair in a familiar token of affection. After the formalities were taken care of, she joined us beside the fire. “You have gotten in a bit of trouble, I assume. Your father, he does not know?”

“Just a bit.” I always felt like a kid around this couple. They had often served as surrogate parents when I was young. I had spent many summers with them and felt a need to make them proud of me. “It’s just a minor hiccup, and my father doesn’t know. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“I’m sure you would,” Ingrid said with that tone that made me feel like I was fifteen years old all over again. “So, what is this thing the demon wants you to steal? I assume this trouble involves some form of thievery.”

I winced. Halle was easy to talk to, but Ingrid didn’t think procurement was a proper profession for a young lady. She had agreed with my father that college, a career, and marriage to Daniel was the only way to go. Ingrid had expressed her disappointment when I dropped out. Trolls really know how to relate feelings of disappointment. Still, she was the only person in town who might know something about this object. “The demon called it the Light of Alhorra.”

Ingrid was silent for a moment, and I knew what she was doing. She was deciding if withholding the information would do any good. Luckily, she had known me for a long time. My stubbornness was legendary. “Yes, I have heard of this, but it is only a legend. It is a box supposedly filled with the blessings of the Fae. The way my mother told the story, a powerful faery tribe placed a piece of their magic in a box for safekeeping. The magic in the box grew into blessings that were then passed from tribe to tribe as a sort of ambassador of peace after the great wars. Each tribe became guardian of the ancient magic and it bound the tribes together.”

“What does a demon want with faery blessings?” I was still a bit confused. “Faery blessings are things like good crops and fair weather. Unless he’s starting an organic Hell co-op, it doesn’t really make sense.”

Ingrid shrugged, a single motion of her shoulder. “This I cannot know.”

My mind raced, trying to make sense of the deal I’d made. There was a pure intentions clause that went along with the Light of Alhorra. If there is one thing demons don’t possess on any level, it’s pure intentions. I didn’t understand what Halfer wanted with a box he couldn’t open and blessings he couldn’t use, unless he was telling the truth and really getting the object back for someone else. “Is it possible that the tribes on this plane are still caring for the object?”

Ingrid shook her head. “No, the time of the great tribes was done long before my mother birthed me. The tribes left here are weak. Some of the young Fae have left the traditional homes and live among the humans. There are a few tribes left, but they are only truly strong in their
sitheins
. On this plane, there are few full-blooded Fae. Such magic would never be safe here. No, the Light was taken beyond the veil when our forefathers left. Whatever this demon is looking for, it cannot be the true light. I think you’re safe turning over whatever you find.”

Ingrid was quiet for a moment, and I asked her a question I had always wondered about. “Ingrid, why don’t you join them? Is it not possible?”

She smiled. “This is my home. This is my family.”

Halle took her hand. “She is not telling the complete truth. She stays because I would never be accepted. I am only a halfling. My father was human. In the great tribes of the past, she would have been a queen. I would, at best, have been a tolerated servant.”

Ingrid tenderly touched his face. I knew in that moment, I didn’t exist for them. It had always been this way with the two of them. Thinking back now, it was the only really solid relationship I had to look up to when I was a child. It was just the two of them in the whole world and had been since the day they met hundreds of years before.

“You are my king. As I said, this is my home and you are my family. I have no need for any other.” She leaned in and kissed him before breaking the moment and turning back to me. “Now, as for you, what does Daniel say?”

I groaned. I should have known she wouldn’t let this subject get away. “He says we do the job by the letter and try not to piss off the demon.”

“He is a wise man, your Daniel,” she said.

“Ingrid, he isn’t mine. He left me.” I didn’t even try to keep the bitterness out of my voice. Ingrid knew how I felt. She had let me cry on her shoulder for days after they took him from me. I had spent a month traveling from bridge to bridge with them as I had when I was a child.

“Bah, he is acting like an idiot,” she said dismissively. “It is—what do they call it in children? I believe the term is temper tantrum.”

“It’s a really long temper tantrum since it’s been years,” I pointed out.

“It’s your fault, child.”

I sat straight up at that. Now I was offended. “My fault? How in all the holy planes of existence is it my fault?”

“He acts as you allow him to act. You must take the reins,” she proclaimed as though it were the simplest thing in the world. She turned to Halle, who was nodding in agreement. “What do the young folk call it now, my love?”

“Scene control,” Halle said. “I have heard this on MTV.”

“Yes, you must get this scene control.”

I threw up my hands in surrender. How could one argue with MTV? “Fine, it’s my fault, but the truth is, I’m not sure what else I can do. I’ve tried everything. I’ve told him nothing has changed for me. I don’t care that he’s gone all fangalicious. I pledged my love. I’ve made a fool of myself on more than one occasion. I’ve tried being patient. Nothing works. He tells me this is all for my own good.”

“Have you tried leaving him?” Ingrid asked.

“I don’t have to. He left me.”

A small smile played on Ingrid’s lips. “He didn’t get very far, did he? I wonder how far he would go if there was…someone else? If he has moved on, you should move on as well, preferably with someone lovely who will anger Daniel in every way possible.”

The thought of dating sent a chill up my spine. It had been so long since I had been on an actual date, much less…

I stopped when I realized what I had been about to think. Much less a first date. I had been on exactly one first date. I went with Daniel to the movies on what we had decided was our first official date. We were fifteen years old, and I don’t think it really counted as a true first date because we had known each other for so long.

What would it be like to go on a date with someone I hadn’t been around for most of my life? Daniel and I had known each other since we were children, so there was never that “getting to know you” period. There wasn’t an exchange of childhood stories since we knew them all. It had been an easy, laidback slide from friendship to romantic love. Up to this moment, my entire romantic life had been about one man. It had been about dating Daniel, loving Daniel, planning a future with Daniel, mourning Daniel, and trying to get Daniel back. How much of myself had I given up for Daniel? Was I willing to wait for the rest of my life for him to come back to me?

“I do not wish to see this life pass you by because Daniel cannot see the truth or because he is too afraid to take what has been offered to him.” Ingrid took my hand in hers and stroked it gently as she had when I was a child and she’d comforted me. “There is too much to enjoy. If Daniel is your soul’s mate, then things will work out. If he is not, then you are wasting time, child.”

I shook my head as if I could clear it from those disturbing thoughts. It seemed too complicated. It was definitely too scary. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t even know how to find a date. I haven’t dated anyone but Daniel.”

“Like I said, you need someone who understands the world you live in,” Ingrid explained. “You need a gentleman who is looking for love as well. And it would not hurt if this gentleman was, as they say, totally hot.”

They let me sit in silence for a moment while I wondered which part of myself was going to win this particular war. The adventurous side of me, the one I had quelled for a long time, was excited at the prospect of trying something, anything to get me out of the rut I’d been in for the last several years. Then there was the part of me that was terrified at having to meet someone new and trying to fit in. Then there was the thought of sex with someone other than Daniel. That almost broke my heart, but I had to ask myself if I was willing to never have sex again. When I got down to the heart of the problem, I realized one thing. I was lonely. “And you might know this person?”

Ingrid’s blue eyes practically glowed with excitement. “Oh, yes. I know just the person, love.”

That’s how I woke up under a bridge with a monster hangover and a date with an earthbound faery prince.

Chapter Four